Girl’s outdoor scheme expanding to young women

Journeys co-founder Megan Longman and Journeys alumni Isla Nelson hope the new programme will...
Journeys co-founder Megan Longman and Journeys alumni Isla Nelson hope the new programme will help young women in Central Otago. PHOTO: RUBY SHAW
Building connections between young women is the aim of a new Alexandra-based outdoor adventure programme starting this month — the brainchild of someone who knows exactly how valuable these connections can be.

Journeys is a free outdoor adventure programme for Central Otago girls.

Past programmes have been for girls aged 12-14, but organisers are launching their first programme for young woman aged 16-24.

Isla Nelson, 18, had been involved in Journeys since its pilot programme over six years ago and had enjoyed "everything" about it.

"The people, exploring, connecting ... there’s no pressure either — it’s a safe space."

Ms Nelson saw a need for those things for young women in Central Otago who may be finding it hard to build relationships with others.

"There’s so many ... young women in that age group, but how do you meet these people and build connections?" she asked.

She brought the idea to Journeys co-founder Megan Longman, who recognised the need it would address.

"For it to be successful in a different age range, we really need a clean slate and to design something specifically for that, as opposed to just modifying the existing [programme]," Mrs Longman said.

"Right from the beginning the idea was to target the older age bracket."

The new programme — Journeys Inspire — will be held weekly and will encompass a range of activities like rock climbing, tramping and outdoor survival skills.

"[It is an] opportunity to try a range of different things and build some skills and some confidence and, perhaps most importantly, to meet new people," Mrs Longman said.

"Because we’ve created Journeys from the ground-up and learnt as we [went], we’ve done so much learning alongside Isla," Mrs Longman said.

"When she comes to us with an idea, it just says that we’ve built enough trust ... and that it’s a safe space for her to help grow it and improve it which is way cooler than us coming up with the ideas."

Journeys Inspire will be free, and is funded through Sport Otago’s Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa fund. The first session will be held on Tuesday June 18. Information and a sign-up sheet is available at www.journeys.org.nz